Planning
Forest planning is a continuous process that includes assessment, plan development, amendment, revision, and monitoring. An adaptive land management plan promotes resilience against uncertain future outcomes by providing management direction that supports adaption to changing ecological and social conditions. (Chugach National Forest Land Management Plan)
Each National Forest and Grassland is governed by a land management plan in accordance with the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). These plans set desired conditions, objectives, standards, and guidelines for the management, protection, and use of the forest. Monitoring conditions on the forest ensures projects are done in accordance with plan direction and determines if effects have triggered a need to update or change the plan direction.
Chugach National Forest 2020 Forest Plan
- Map 13: Management Areas
- Map 14: Geographic Areas
- Map 15: Inventory Roadless Area
- Map 16: Desired Rec Opportunity Spectrum
- Map 17: Rec Facilities Kenai
- Map 18: Rec Facilities PWS
- Map 19: Rec Facilities Copper
- Map 20: Scenic Integrity Objectives
- Map 21: Land Type Association
- Map 22: Watersheds
Amendments
Administrative Changes
- Change 1 - Oct. 27, 2020 - Management Area, Recreation Opportunity Spectrum, Scenic Integrity Objective correction, Trinity Point
- Change 2 – April 25, 2022 - Changes, clarifications to Plan Monitoring Program indicators
- Change 3 – May 26, 2022 - Dates correction for activity restrictions during dusky Canada goose nesting season
- Change 4 – June 5, 2023 - Management Designations for Land Acquisition
Additional Planning Documents and Features
- Final Environmental Impact Statement
- Chugach National Forest Land Management Plan Interactive Map
Forest Plan Monitoring and Evaluation Documents
Biennial Plan Monitoring and Evaluation Reports
Annual Plan Monitoring and Evaluation Reports
A brief summary and StoryMap
Resource specialists in the forest used the monitoring guide to answer nine monitoring questions using 31 separate indicators to determine if current activities described in the 2020 Chugach National Forest Monitoring Plan are moving the forest toward or maintaining the desired conditions or objectives. Of the nine monitoring questions examined, we are meeting plan objectives or progressing toward our desired conditions in eight.
View the StoryMap of the Land and Resource Management Plan monitoring report.
This report supports implementation of the Chugach National Forest Land Management Plan and provides a baseline description of the presently existing character of the Nellie Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area.
Links to Additional Webpages, Documents, and Information
During the forest plan revision process, the Forest Service is directed to identify “species of conservation concern.” This is a type of special designation given to organisms for which there is substantial concern about their capability to persist over the long-term in a national forest.
The Regional Forester identifies SCC for forest plans developed under the 2012 planning rule. To be identified as a SCC, the species must be native and known to occur in the national forest, cannot already be a federally endangered, threatened, or candidate species, and must have sufficient scientific information available about it to conclude that there is a substantial concern for its capability to persist in the national forest over the long term. If there is insufficient scientific information available to conclude that, or if the species is secure in the national forest, then that species will not be identified as a potential species of conservation concern.